All About Food: More on Ayurvedic living and eating

Several weeks ago we wrote an article that was a brief overview of the Ayurvedic diet, and a lot of people have been expressing interest in knowing more. Sid Fanarof, owner of Z Pizza, told us about a friend of his who happens to be the teacher of Rob Talbert, the gentleman we interviewed for our first article on the subject. What got our attention was that Sid said, “She is a fabulous cook!” Vijaya, a.k.a. Vicki Stern, graciously offered to talk to us and to give us some recipes.

As we walked the path to her charming and tasteful cottage in North Laguna, we noticed her container garden with its herbs, squashes, tomatoes and peppers. It reminded us that fresh and seasonal are essential elements of the 2,000-year-old Ayurvedic diet. Today these ancient principles are being touted as the hot new thing in healthy eating (see Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, Russ Parsons, etc.)

This beautiful lady, who doesn’t look anywhere near her age with her perfect skin and remarkable flexibility, sat on the couch in lotus pose for more than an hour and chatted with us about her journey through Ayurveda. Born in Orange County, her family was in the restaurant business and cooking was always a part of her life, even as a young person. Sadly, her mother died when she was 11. Her step-mom was a caterer and held big events at their house. As an adult, Vicki herself managed a health food store and now her three daughters are all involved in food as well, including Lindsay Smith Rosales, who opened Nirvana Grill last year.

She has always been interested in healthy food and yoga, and raised her daughters as vegetarians. She actually became a vegan thinking this was the ultimate healthy diet but began to have some physical problems and in 1984 read a book about Ayurveda by Vasant Lad.

Finding the author’s phone number in the book, she contacted him at his Institute in New Mexico and eventually persuaded him to teach workshops here because with her three young girls, she could not travel. She became a devotee of Lad, who gave her the name Vijaya (meaning victory in Hindi) and she found the Ayurvedic diet resolved her health problems.

She is now a highly recognized teacher and practitioner of Ayurveda. The scope of her work as a naturopath includes diet, herbs, breathwork, yoga, massage and Tantra.

She is the originator of Shakti Marga, which is the Path of Feminine Power and also offers a weeklong program called PanchaKarma, the Ayurvedic cleansing therapy.

Diagnostic techniques include pulse, face and tongue analysis to determine your dosha (specific combinations of each individual’s mental and physical characteristics) and where your imbalances are.

“Everything in the universe can be medicine or poison,” she says, depending on your constitution.

There are three doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha.

To understand them, see our last article for a brief overview at www.coastlinepilot.com or look up Ayurvedic doshas on the Internet or contact Vicki at info@AnjaliAyurveda.com.

ELLE HARROW and TERRY MARKOWITZ owned A La Carte for 20 years. They can be reached for comments or questions at themarkos755@yahoo.com